On Tuesday, LNG feedgas was at its lowest level at around 9.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) when deliveries to several facilities such as Freeport, Cameron LNG and Cheniere LNG in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas dropped. On Wednesday, the declining trend reversed and deliveries were up to 10.1bcf/d, before rising to 10.8bcf/d on Thursday.

In March, Freeport LNG said that it shut down train 2 of its liquefaction unit and was closing down train 1 imminently for repairs and maintenance. Each of the trains can turn around 0.7bcf/d of feedgas into LNG.

Energy traders told Reuters that increased flows to Freeport was a sign that at least one of the plant’s three liquefaction trains was beginning to restart, as feedgas at the liquefaction plant was on track to reach 0.3bcf/d, up from near zero seen over the past week since train 3 tripped on 9 April.

Considering the US’ leading position in the global LNG market, the fluctuations in output at Freeport and other US LNG export plants has had major impacts on global gas prices.

On Tuesday, gas futures were up by around 6% at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility, fuelled by fears of a decline in global gas supplies following the drop in feedgas levels at US LNG export plants.

Last year, the US overtook Qatar and Australia to become the world’s largest exporter of LNG. In 2022, a fire at Freeport curtailed the nation’s output, but after it returned to full output in November 2023, the US exported a record 8.6 million tonnes of LNG from its terminals in December.